America recognizes the importance of lawful immigration. Such immigration provides economic and cultural benefits both to the United States and to the immigrants. In contrast, unlawful immigration challenges America’s ability to protect its borders and preserve its sovereignty. Congress should search for appropriate ways to encourage lawful immigration and prevent unlawful immigration, through careful step-by-step actions to address the wide variety of immigration issues, rather than through one-size-fits-all comprehensive legislation. Congress should not adopt failed policies of the past, such as an amnesty, which discourages respect for the law, treats law-breakers better than law-followers, and encourages future unlawful immigration. When Congress implements step-by-step the proper policies, American will benefit greatly from the resulting lawful immigration.
From its inception, the United States of America has recognized the vital importance of lawful immigration to the nation. Such immigration brings important economic and cultural benefits both to the United States and to the immigrants. Americans rightly incorporate into their lives and celebrate the values of America, including individual freedom, limited government, and free enterprise, and beckon others to join us. Lawful immigration greatly benefits both America and the lawful immigrants, while unlawful immigration presents challenges to America’s ability to protect its borders and preserve its sovereignty.
Welcoming Lawful Immigration. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence, in speaking of the tyranny the thirteen American colonies had suffered under King George III of Great Britain, said:
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
The Declaration’s submission of facts about the king’s tyrannical conduct included that:
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for the Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
After the representative of George III stated in the Treaty of Paris in September 3, 1783, that “His Brittanic Majesty acknowledges the said United States . . . to be free sovereign and independent states,” the victorious Revolutionary War commander in chief General George Washington wrote on December 2, 1783, to an association of Irish immigrants in New York City:
The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations And Religions; whom we shall wellcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.
When the delegates of the states met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to draft the Constitution that conventions of the people of the several states later ratified, they included among the enumerated powers of the federal Congress the power “[t]o establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,” which would set forth the conditions under which immigrants could become citizens of the United States. Thus, at its very beginning, the United States of America recognized the importance to the nation of lawful immigration.
America continues to recognize the vital importance of lawful immigration. As President Ronald Reagan said in 1986:
Since 1820, more than 52 million immigrants have come to the United States from all over the world. They have sought and found a new and better life for themselves and their children in this land of liberty and opportunity. The magnet that draws them is freedom and the beacon that guides them is hope. America offers liberty for all, encourages hope for betterment, and nurtures great expectations. In this free land a person can realize his dreams—going as far as talent and drive can carry him. In return America asks each of us to do our best, to work hard, to respect the law, to cherish human rights, and to strive for the common good.
The immigrants who have so enriched America include people from every race, creed, and ethnic background. Yet all have been drawn here by shared values and a deep love of freedom. Most brought with them few material goods. But with their hearts and minds and toil they have contributed mightily to the building of this great Nation and endowed us with the riches of their achievements. Their spirit continues to nourish our own love of freedom and opportunity.[1]
In contrast to lawful immigration, which benefits America greatly, unlawful immigration challenges the ability of the United States to protect its borders and preserve its sovereignty.
Congress Should Proceed Carefully, Step-by-Step, Instead of with One-Size-Fits-All Comprehensive Legislation. The complexities involved in encouraging lawful immigration and deterring unlawful immigration call for a measured set of approaches tailored to a wide variety of immigration issues, rather than comprehensive, all-or-nothing, and one-size-fits-all legislation.[2] Those approaches “can move forward on many fronts at the same time, focusing on some commonsense initiatives that begin to address the practical challenges of our immigration system.”[3] The U.S. should reform its immigration system through a careful, step-by-step process that welcomes lawful immigrants, encourages their full participation in American life, and expands opportunity. The process also must prevent unlawful immigration, encourage respect for law, secure America’s borders, and preserve America’s sovereignty.[4] The Heritage Foundation has described this step-by-step process for a problem-solving approach to immigration issues, such as reform of the lawful immigration system, visa reforms, lawful temporary worker arrangements, and strong border and interior enforcement.[5]
The Congress of the United States has the power to determine by law whether and on what terms citizens of other countries may enter the United States. The Supreme Court has held that the power to admit or exclude such aliens is an incident of the sovereignty and independence of the United States. The Congress may exercise that power, by enactment of civil and criminal laws, and has done so. Despite U.S. efforts to enforce its laws, substantial numbers of aliens are unlawfully in the United States.
Congress Has Broad Power to Address both Lawful Immigration and Unlawful Immigration. Congress possesses plenary authority to regulate entry of aliens into the United States. In 1977, the Supreme Court said:
This Court has repeatedly emphasized that “over no conceivable subject is the legislative power of Congress more complete than it is over” the admission of aliens. Our cases “have long recognized the power to expel or exclude aliens as a fundamental sovereign attribute exercised by the government’s political departments largely immune from judicial control.”[6]
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